THE Cub Report, 05.26.2014, Version- A Grin Shows a Trick Up a Sleeve

I got slammed in the face last week, slammed by the fact that the gasoline powered trucks are finally making it to the market.

While I know it’s a good thing for the hobby (the added realism of the sound and smell of a fossil fuel powered engine), I am forever a hardcore electric guy, and the realization that gas might be taking over again, well, it frankly sent chills down my spine. Why?

Just before the 2000’s life was good in rc. Most people drove electric 10th scale buggy, tracks were quiet, you knew pretty much everyone at the track, and things were in a nice quiet routine. Then came the Traxxas T-Maxx. The T-Maxx set off a firestorm that our hobby had never seen before.

Perhaps the biggest change it brought to the hobby was nitro, for years afterwards that’s all most people, including first time noobs, wanted to run. It also fostered in the age of Ready-To-Runs. Before the T-Maxx most hobbyists wouldn’t touch an RTR with a ten foot pole, afterwards, that’s all “average” hobbyists wanted. It also brought about a huge change at local tracks and bash spots. All of a sudden there was a huge influx of first time noob drivers, some driving the right direction on the track, others the opposite direction, and some others were simply jumping every pipe and going which ever direction suited them. Yes, there were a whole lot of near misses, a lot of chassis bending slams, and plenty of the ever hysterical, rod stretching, nitro runaway. Seriously, the early T-Maxx days were insane, at the local bash spot, and on dealer showrooms. Dealers couldn’t keep the T-Maxx, or its incredible amount of aftermarket parts, in stock.

Now… I am fairly certain that even if the new gasoline powered trucks are superb that they can’t make the same kind of incredible change to our hobby like the T-Maxx did. But still, gas just might blow up huge giving our hobby a very nice shot in the arm, something it could really use right now. That might not be something us seasoned hobbyists are really going to enjoy, but it is for the good of the hobby, so we need to help out all the noobs the best we can. Yes, seriously, even if you really don’t want to, play nice and be good ambassadors for the hobby.

Btw, for gasoline powered machines to really take off they really only need to do one thing- perform like a 5th scale HPI Baja 5B. By that I mean they need to- 1. start easy, 2. rarely need carb adjustments, and 3. have such a long runtime that you get tired of driving before it runs out of gas. Can the new breed of 8th scale gas burners pull those three things off? Well… our review of the HPI Octane Savage goes up tomorrow, there you can find out just how close the first entry into the gas market comes to those 3 goals. But… even if the early entries into the gas market do not solve all the problems nitro had, give the R & D departments at the various rc manufacturers some time and I’m pretty certain they can work out the kinks. To boil it down, IMO it’s just a matter of time until gas takes over, at least for a few years (but I’ll be very happy sticking with my 6S MT4 G3 thank you very much).

That’s it for this week ya bunch of raving lunatics, support your local hobby shops and bash spots, and don’t forget about all the people that paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.